Security records show cops at a school massacre in Uwalde, Texas, waited 77 minutes before even trying to open the doors of two classrooms where the gunman killed 19 children and two teachers last month, a new report said.
The latest revelation, published Saturday by The San Antonio Express News, is the latest detail that shows a failed police response to the massacre, which is now being investigated by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The video shows that the shooter Salvador Ramos, 18, managed to open the door of classroom 111 on May 24, although it had to be locked automatically when closed and opened only from the outside with a key, the newspaper writes.
After entering the classroom, Ramos managed to enter classroom 112 through another inner door.
It was unclear whether the door was locked while Ramos was firing, but police did not even check or try to open it, although they have access to a Halligan tool that may have broken the lock, according to the report.
Uwalde’s school police chief, Pete Aredondo, was in charge of the operation. He had previously told The Texas Tribune that he had waited 40 minutes for the security guard’s keys to try to open the classroom door.
Uwalde School Police Chief Pete Aredondo, third from left, stands during a press conference in front of Rob Elementary School in Uwalde, Texas on May 26, 2022. AP Photo / Dario Lopez-Mills, File
Now footage shows that when Aredondo finally received the key ring, he was trying to open other doors to find the master key, not the doors to classrooms 111 and 112, according to Express News.
“Every time I tried a key, I just prayed,” Aredondo told the Texas Tribune. “The only thing that mattered to me at the time was to save as many teachers and children as possible.”
He tried dozens of keys, but told officers to wait for a tactical team when no one is working, the report said.
Finally, at 12:50 a.m., police broke down the door and shot and killed a suspect who first broke into the school at 11:33 a.m. through an outside door that also failed to lock automatically.
During this torturous and deadly 77-minute period, seven desperate 911 calls were made by students and teachers in the classrooms under fire as the carnage piled up.
Texas investigators say Aredondo mistakenly treated the shooting as an incident with a barricaded suspect, rather than an active shooter situation where the top priority is for cops to confront the suspect to stop the violence.
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